Lawrence Madders
Lawrence Madders, the Member Assembly for the Eastergate district and the Director of War in both Charles Bradsworth and Benjamin Rinehart's governments, is one of the most powerful and prominent politicians in Iansisle.
Madders' career in public service started as a labor organizer at Royal Mining and Manufacturing's Grand Street Steelworks. His union, the Grand Street Steelworkers' Brotherhood, was kept a secret until its disastrous 1948 strike. Troops from the IV Rifles, although under strict orders not to break up the strike, were fired on by RM&M agitators and returned fire, killing seven and wounding two dozen in what would later be known as the Grand Street Massacre. Madders was blamed by the Combined Parliament for the bloodshed and exiled on pain of death to Novar Ohan. His writings were smuggled from there back into Iansisle, where his increasingly radical philosophy had a significant impact on the left-wing of Iansisle's reformists.
After news of the Corporate Yoke started to leak and revolutionary groups, including several inspired by Madders' writings, began to fight against the tyranny, the Roanian government decided that the time was ripe to upset the local balance of power by inserting Madders into Iansisle. However, Madders was quickly overshadowed by Bradsworth's return to the Shield and, free from Roanian control, became increasingly resistive to the orders and suggestions of his former benefactors.
Madders twice ran against Bradsworth for the Premiership, losing both times by a significant margin. However, as his power base increased, he started to command a large number of revolutionary votes needed by Bradsworth to form a majority in the Assembly. Consequentially, Madders was offered and, after initially rejecting it, accepted the position of Director of War.
In the War Office, Madders used his post to radicalize the Iansislean officer corps. Those deemed 'too reactionary' for some link to the old regime were purged and those possessed of the 'proper revolutionary spirit' -- such as Martin Hansfield and Nicodemo Ranalte -- were quickly promoted. Madders constantly disagreed with Bradsworth, who was unnerved by the amount of public executions carried on by Madders and his partners in the Justice Directorate, although he nearly always agreed to toe the government line in the end.
After Bradsworth's government fell in the wake of the regicide of King James and Rinehart rose to the top position (leapfrogging Madders, in the War Director's opinion), Madders led seven other Directors in revolt against the government. The Jameston Place administration is currently paralyzed as this power struggle resolves itself.
